The Adventures of One Severus Snape and His Apprentice
by HappyAuriga
Summary: Severus Snape has given in to Dumbledore and hired an apprentice to reduce his own workload. Little does he know that he made a life-changing decision. (Yes, this is AU. Who would have guessed!)
1. In Which the Apprentice Gets Settled In

**Author's note:** In this year's Advent Calendar, Snape's apprentice made an appearance. I have been asked whether there are more stories about the blonde witch. As a matter of fact, there are. They were originally published on HPANA, and those who followed them there will recognise a lot in this story. I am, however, rewriting the whole thing because on HPANA there was - since the platform was designed for chat - a lot more interaction with readers and the original story would no longer work without the comments between the chapters.

I will try to have at least a chapter ready per week. Since I am a teacher, things can be very busy at times in real life. So please forgive me if I don't manage to stick with the schedule.

If you wish to learn how Snape met his apprentice, please read "How Severus Snape Acquired An Apprentice" before you this one.

Now let's start the story:

Chapter 1: In Which the Apprentice Gets Settled In

"Severus," Minerva McGonagall looked over the rims of her glasses disapprovingly, "I will certainly not assign you bigger quarters. There is nothing wrong with the place you live in. For centuries, Hogwarts' potions masters have used them and many of them had apprentices."

Snape gritted his teeth. "That was in times when apprentices belonged to their masters, hair and skin. Are you telling me I should force the girl into my bed? The standard apprentice contract states she has to share my quarters. There is no room for her in the quarters I have. Therefore, I need bigger rooms."

The apprentice in question, a blonde girl in bright pink robes, was standing beside her newly assigned master. She followed the exchange worrying her lip. "I do not need much room," she piped up.

"You need a proper place to sleep and store your things," Snape snapped at her. "And she," he pointed at McGonagall, "has the power to provide it."

"As I said, the answer is no. Now excuse me, I have essays to grade." The deputy headmistress reached for a stack of homework and her quill.

"I hope their handwriting is dreadful!" Snape raged before he took his apprentice by the hand and left for the dungeons.

The girl had to run to keep up with her irate master.

"I'll take the sofa," Snape spat as soon as the door to his private rooms was closed.

The girl looked around with interest.

"I do not want to usurp your bed," she said. "And don't forget that this has to be for a couple of years. You can't sleep on the sofa for years."

"We will not share my bed," Snape said through gritted teeth. He had been a deatheater at one point in his life but not even then had he forced himself on a witch.

"Of course not," agreed the apprentice. "It would be entirely inappropriate. Now, let me see."

Snape's quarters consisted of a small living room with two armchairs in front of a fireplace and a desk – on which student essays were stacked up high thanks to the fact that he had missed several evenings of grading when he went searching for an apprentice – and a bedroom with only a single bed and a small cupboard. Squeezed between the bed and the door to the small bathroom was a small bedside table which held the potions master's socks and underwear in two drawers and some personal trinkets in a third.

"I could use your cupboard," the apprentice said once she had seen everything.

"You want to sleep in my cupboard," Snape echoed.

"Well, yes," replied the girl. "There is not much room in here but I think I can do something with the cupboard if you allow it."

"Well," Snape said for lack of alternative, "why not. What did you have in mind?"

The witch drew her wand and pointed it at the small piece of furniture. She cast a spell Snape had never heard before and the cupboard glowed white for a moment.

"I just hope you didn't ruin my robes!" cried the potions master. It would take the girl forever to pay him new robes seeing that she only received a little pocket money and no proper salary.

"Of course not!" the blonde opened the cupboard and pushed the robes in question aside. "This will do," she announced from behind Snape's clothes.

"May I?" Snape asked before he fought his way past his robes.

"Come in, come in. Welcome to my new home." The girl waved a hand around her new realm.

Snape gasped. His cupboard now housed a room which was about ten times as big as his whole quarters!

"Will the school provide furniture or should I transfigure what I need?" asked the girl while Snape was still trying to regain his composure.

"Whimsy!" Snape called the elf who normally took care of his needs. Whimsy appeared immediately with a soft popping noise and bowed low.

"How may Whimsy be of assistance?" the elf – an elderly male wearing a white pillow case – asked.

"Whimsy, this is my new apprentice. She needs furniture for her new room." The potions master gestured at the room at large.

The house elf's eyes went big as saucers. "Whimsy cannot bring enough furniture to fill this room," he said sadly. "There is a list what every member of staff is to be given. Whimsy is very sorry."

"You do not need to fill the whole room," the apprentice told the house elf. "For now I just need a bed, a desk and a wardrobe. A bedside table would be nice, or a chest of drawers."

The elf beamed at the blonde. "That Whimsy can bring. Whimsy will be back in a moment."

Five minutes later, the girl had her furniture. She had put it in a corner of the room and with a couple of spells created a bathroom next to her desk.

"You should have apprenticed with Flitwick," Snape pointed out. "You are good with spells."

The witch shrugged. "Charms are good but Potions are more fun and more useful. Potions can be used to heal people. I'd rather learn that."

Once the apprentice was content with her new room, Snape took her up to the Great Hall for dinner. So far only McGonagall and Dumbledore had met his new witch and it was absolutely necessary that all the teachers knew her. The girl was hardly older than the seventh years and it would not do for her to have to discuss her authority with Snape's colleagues when she was acting on his orders.

Also, if she was to really help him with his students, Slytherin house had to know that her word was law, just like Snape's.

The potions master introduced the girl to the teachers first.

"Severus, you sly dog," Flitwick grinned jovially. "Where did you find this pretty wtich?" He placed a delicate kiss on the tips of the girl's fingers. "You do not happen to have a sister?"

"Actually I have five," the blonde informed the Charms master, "but I'm afraid none of them is in your age group."

"What a pity," the small wizard said dreamily.

"Do you think it's appropriate that a girl young enough to be your student resides with you?" Sprout huffed when it was her turn to have the apprentice presented to her. "I'm not sure a Hogwarts teacher can afford dubious morals like that."

Snape growled at the plump witch angrily. How dare she!

"You seem to lack understanding for a proper apprenticeship. One has to wonder what happened when you worked to gain your mastery." The potions master glared at the Head of Hufflepuff. "Unlike some, my apprentice has a proper apprenticeship contract and her own room."

"Is this true, child?" Sprout asked the blonde kindly. "If not, don't hesitate to ask for help."

"How dare you think that badly of my Master!" the younger witch glowered at the other witch. "He is more concerned for my safety and comfort than I! Any apprentice would be lucky to serve him!"

Snape allowed himself a proud half-smile as the witch defended him so passionately.

After the outburst, the other teachers greeted the blonde neutrally. The female part of the staff looked at her jealously. Snape was, after all, the best catch to be made when it came to male Hogwarts teachers. Of course, Snape was aware of the fact, that he was more than fifty years younger than Flitwick, who was the youngest apart from Snape himself, and the only unmarried full human unless you counted Dumbledore and that one certainly was past the marrying stage of his life.

The blonde ignored the looks and the whispers and sat beside her master who started a discussion of the potions they were going to work on after the meal.


	2. In Which Some Brewing Takes Place

Chapter 2: In Which Some Brewing Takes Place

After the meal, Severus Snape gave Sprout a last glare before he sailed out of the Great Hall, robes billowing and pink-clad girl in tow. The blonde had to run in order to keep up with the potions master.

"Wait!" she squealed when they reached the corridor that led down to the dungeons. "I don't know my way around the castle yet!"

Snape stopped immediately. "I apologize," he said formally. "I just wanted to get away from those judging looks."

"Let them look all that they want," the apprentice advised. "What will we do next?"

"I need to brew some pepper-up potion for the hospital wing," Snape informed the witch. "You can assist me. But first, let me show you the potions classroom."

They proceeded at a slower pace to Snape's classroom.

"I told you that you are expected to help with teaching. I thought that you can help me proctor the students while the work first, and once you know what is required, you can take over the first years and maybe the second years. You will also need to assist me with grading."

The girl nodded. "I never thought I'd become a teacher," she informed the potions master.

"You are not a teacher," Snape corrected her. "You are my assistant. It is still me who is responsible for the curriculum and the marking."

The blonde blew a breath she had been holding. "Thank Merlin! I don't think I could handle the responsibility that early in my training."

When they reached the classroom door, Snape laid his hand on the doorframe and advised the apprentice to do the same. When the girl obeyed, he drew his wand and performed a lengthy spell which made the frame glow Slytherin green.

"Now the door will recognize you and open for you without having to utter a password or any such nonsense. We will perform the same spell for the doors to my lab and my quarters."

The girl thanked the potions master and followed him into the classroom where she got a small tour of the desks, the little bookshelf and the store cupboards.

"These cupboards need sorting," the girl declared. "If you don't mind I'll do it later."

"You won't," Snape refused. "That's a task for detention. Which reminds me that you will occasionally have to oversee detentions when I'm otherwise occupied." He didn't mention meetings with the Dark Lord. There was nothing to be gained by scaring the girl unnecessarily. "Now for that pepper-up potion. Come."

He led the way to his private lab which was right opposite of the classroom. The laboratory had a half dozen of workplaces and a couple of heavy work tables to prepare ingredients. The store cupboards were much bigger than those in the classroom and held a much wider variety of ingredients. Other than the students' cupboards, these were diligently sorted.

"This cupboard," Snape pointed at the smallest, "holds the potentially dangerous ingredients. There is no lock because so far I was the only one to use this lab. Will I have to put one there or can you promise to not open this cupboard unless you are expressly told to?"

"I will stay away from this cupboard unless you order otherwise," the apprentice promised solemnly.

"Excellent," said Snape and started to explain about the tools and cauldrons which were laid out on shelves against the back wall of the room.

The apprentice listened intently.

"This door," Snape ended his little speech, "is a connection to my quarters. It is magical obviously. Therefore, I advise you strongly to never carry and potions or ingredients through it. The magic of the passageway is likely to interfere with the properties of your brew."

The girl nodded again.

"Well, let's get started. I assume that you know how to make pepper-up potion?" Snape asked. It was, after all, one of the basic recipes. Wizards and witches with families brewed it all the time and since the girl had said she had learned potions through assisting her grandmother, it seemed certain that she knew about pepper-up potion.

The girl nodded that, yes, she knew how to make pepper-up potion.

"Excellent," said Snape. "I suggest we brew a cauldron each. "Sometimes I think our students drink it like pumpkin juice. There are times when I have to make several batches a week." He reached for a cauldron and handed it to the witch before getting down a second one for himself.

For some time, the wizard and the witch worked in silence, side by side. They cut up various ingredients before they started the actual brewing process.

To Snape's great irritation, the girl started to sing as soon as she had put the first ingredients into her cauldron.

"Can you stop that," he snarled. "I will miscount the stirs if you make such a racket in here."

"How am I supposed to know how long I have to stir if I'm not allowed to sing?" asked the apprentice.

"You count stirs, of course!"

"But my grandmother told me that I need to stir through two verses of 'Cauldron full of love'!"

"Tell me that you don't sing every time you brew!" cried Snape.

The apprentice huffed. "The only thing that doesn't require song is coffee! Everything else needs song. The music adds to the magic of the brew!"

"Nonsense!" Snape snapped angrily.

The girl glared at the potions master. How was she supposed to brew when he forbade her timing method? After some quick thinking the girl cast a bubblehead charm and a silencing charm. "Can you hear me?" she asked. When Snape didn't react but remained focussed on his cauldron, the girl smiled and started to sing.

Once she was done with her potion, the apprentice cancelled her spells and waited for her master to inspect the result of her efforts.

Snape eyed the content of the girl's cauldron suspiciously. "Don't think I didn't notice what you did," he snarled before he declared the brew acceptable and showed the witch where to find phials into which to put the potion.

Once they had finished filling their task, Snape sent a house elf up to the hospital wing to deliver a basket full of pepper-up doses. Then he ushered the apprentice to his quarters.

"That was not bad," he admitted, "but your timing method is completely unacceptable. You cannot sing in a lab. Therefore, you will go to the library after dinner and research timing methods. I want five feet of parchment on the advantages of stir-counting over any other method you find."

"You want me to write an essay?" cried the witch. "I'm not one of your students!"

"No, you are not," admitted the potions master, "you are my apprentice and as such your learning is much more important than any student's. And if I deem an essay the right way to teach you, you will write an essay."

The apprentice muttered under her breath and turned to Snape's bedroom door.

"Where do you think you are going?" Snape growled.

"I'll be taking a nap before dinner," the girl informed him. "I cannot write when I'm tired."

The wizard followed the apprentice into the bedroom. "It's barely three in the afternoon! You can't just lie down in the middle of the day!" he cried.

"Watch me," snapped the girl. "Oh, I forgot, you can't because you are not welcome in the cupboard!" That said she disappeared into the piece of furniture and slammed the door behind her.

Snape tried to follow but the door would not open for him. "Open that door!" he cried. "What if I need robes?"

The door opened instantly and the blonde's head appeared. "You have robes on and you are a wizard. I can hardly imagine something happening to your robes that can't be repaired with a spell." She slammed the door shut again and this time no shouting and rattling the handle helped.

At last, Snape gave up and sat in front of his fireplace with a book. If the witch wanted to eat, she had to move past him. He was looking forward to that.


End file.
